Aga cooks up doughnut deal

Tuesday 23 April 2002 23:00 BST

COOKER manufacturer Aga Foodservice splashed out $24.2m (£16.7m) on the world's biggest doughnut machinery maker. Belshaw Brothers, a 50-year-old US manufacturer, specialises in the machines used by supermarkets and bakery stores. Its biggest clients include Wal-Mart of the US and its British subsidiary Asda.

Aga chief executive William McGrath said he would push sales to other supermarket groups, especially in Britain and on the Continent. Aga, which has made a flurry of acquisitions in the past year, still wants to buy a supermarket bread-machine business in the US.